Archive for 2015

Leaders should consider spending more time celebrating achievements within their teams and organizations instead of rushing headlong into whatever is next. Granted, the anticipation of charging ahead can be exciting. The pace, however, may leave people exhausted and feeling under appreciated. Is what we just accomplished worth anything? Is it only about the next goal or new theme?

The coming weeks are a good time of the year to identify and celebrate:
• successes (large or small)
• progress along the path
• what was attempted and learned

Thank team members for their efforts. Share memories of how it happened. Enjoy celebrating together.

In any endeavor – academics, athletics, career or business – performing at the top is exhilarating! However, if success comes too quickly and easily, a deceptive snare is laid – blindness to the need to improve. The motivation to form healthy work and learning habits is missing. It’s simply a matter of time until performance peaks out.

Remaining a top performer – sustaining success over time – requires continuous growth and work. Life is a progression, not a single event. The factors influencing achievement are constantly shifting, so only deliberate improvement prepares us for more challenging future pursuits and enables us to elude the snare.

“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” Benjamin Franklin

One key reason teenage drivers crash four times more often than older drivers is an underdeveloped skill of scanning – glancing around for 360 degree awareness. Leaders can struggle with the same weakness in an organizational sense. Disruptive ideas, be it innovation opportunity or business model threat, will most likely come from outside your industry.

More experienced leaders are better prepared to understand significant outside developments and how they apply. However, it requires looking around. These activities can help you hone scanning skills:

• Read or skim a wide variety of magazines
• Talk to people in different industries
• Attend other industry conferences

“Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.” Booker T. Washington

People easily identify my children as belonging to me. In addition to physical distinctions, we share a few marked behaviors and attitudes. When I’m bothered by what I see in my children (e.g., lack of follow through or resistance to change), I try to examine myself as the leader.

Similarly, in organizations employees may take on the characteristics of their leaders. Are you annoyed with certain behaviors, reactions or attitudes you see in people you lead? Consider, these could be “chips” from your leadership block.

If we want to see different chips we must be willing to change the block.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” John Quincy Adams

Common sentiment seems to hold that we are back in a period of strong economic growth. Leader’s radar screens are filled with many new and exciting opportunities. We can get downright giddy after slogging through years of a tough market.

We may also find ourselves unprepared for saying NO to the majority of good opportunities. Yet, it is critical we do so. Instead, too many leaders will do almost anything to keep all their options open. In the end, hedging options typically slows down decision making and robs resources (commitment) from the best opportunities.

Don’t expect your team to become strong by itself – as if by spontaneous combustion. Strong teams develop with external energy, that is, individual team members committing to each other and to their common cause.

Whose job is it to build a strong team? Obviously, the team leader bears direct accountability. That being said, if you are the member of a team, you need look no further than yourself. Do not think it is the job of the team leader only. Everyone on the leadership team can take responsibility for strengthening their level of commitment to one another and the cause.

How is your annual strategic plan faring now that we are almost 90 days into the year? In What Makes an Effective Executive, Peter Drucker makes this statement regarding the strategic plan:

“It must not become a straightjacket. It should be revised often, because every success creates new opportunities. So does every failure. The same is true for changes in the business environment, in the market, and especially in people within the enterprise – all these changes demand that the plan be revised.”

It’s hard to say it any better. What fine-tuning adjustments do you and your team need to make?

“A written plan should anticipate the need for flexibility.” Peter F. Drucker

Leaders commonly bemoan their lack of time to think. They know dedicated think time is a prerequisite for high value producing activities – creating, innovating, problem-solving, planning and prioritizing.

However, days are spent juggling tactical, low value producing activities. Even efficiency gains (many via technology) are easily squandered on other technologies which add little to no value (e.g., email).

The solution is simple – schedule think time in your calendar. Then, avoid the temptation to over-ride these commitments. Turn off email and phones. Even a couple hours of focused, uninterrupted thinking time two or three days each week will make an impact.

“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking.” Martin Luther King, Jr.